MHST 341 Music Developments in the First Half of the 20th-Century
This course will consider the different paths that composers took in overcoming the musical language of Romanticism. We will explore the gradual abandoning of tonality and thematicism in the expressionist works of Schoenberg, Strauss, Berg and Webern, the development of 12-tone techniques, the discovery of new expressive means in the music of Debussy, Skryabin, and Messiaen, as well as the turn toward simplicity and the various guises of neoclassicism in the works of Satie, Les Six, Stravinsky, Bartok, and Hindemith. There will be listening quizzes, short essays and a final project (consisting of a term paper and a presentation) on the topic of the student's choosing.